saying goodbye

what a weekend.  we made our final visit to my parent's home in west chicago.  i don't think i really get it that i won't be back.  so weird.

this was their first house.  back in the summer of '94, i was a punk fifteen year old, mad at my my parents for moving me in the middle of high school, wanting to crash at my best friend's house for the next three years, and not really getting what that meant.  their first house.

in just a couple weeks, they will finish packing up sixteen years worth of living.  a truck will get packed and the move down to champaign will be made.  my dad will get to move out of our basement.  it will be the end of a long period of transition for them (and us).

but it means saying goodbye to we-go.  i might be back for this or that.  but it will never be a home-away-from-home again.  and that moody teenager has turned into an emotional thirty-one year old.  i am a sap.  i stood looking at the place for ages several minutes (hey, i had kids fighting in the backseat) before we left.  i really won't be back.  so weird. 

when driving off on sunday, my mom had no sympathy.  she wanted to jump in the van and drive away forever too.  the frustrations of selling a house have taken their toll.  guess what mom?  only seventeen more sleepless nights left!